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Monday, September 12, 2016

Marketing Comics in the 21st Century

One
of the greatest challenges any comic publisher faces these days is marketing
their work. While some comic books have eye-catching images on their covers and
amazing stories in between their pages, most publishers including Marvel and DC
don’t have a clue on how to turn those fantastic tales into sales.

When
it comes down to marketing, the entire comic book industry is stuck in the
1990’s. Still trying to get people’s attention with archaic approaches such as
gimmicks, events, and shock marketing. While these approaches got the attention
of speculators in the 1990’s, 21st Century comic fans today are
completely indifferent to them. Worse, New customers are just walking right by
them in an age where superhero movies are raking in billions of dollars.

Comic
publishers like Marvel think they’re getting the public’s attention when they
go out and drop a press release announcing things like a Black Female Iron Man,
an Asian Hulk, a Female Thor, a Hispanic Ghost Rider or a Gay Rawhide Kid. While
DC thinks it’ll get the attention of readers with big catalog wide events like
New 52 and Rebirth. And while many comic fans will debate these gimmicks on
social media forums like message boards and Facebook groups it usually doesn’t
have much impact when it comes to increasing readership. While these marketing
stunts may shock most comic fans in the short-term, the sales numbers aren’t
anything to write home about a few moths later. In most cases the attempt to
generate controversy among readers generates next to no traction for a
publisher.

At
the end of the day a title winds up getting cancelled after six or eight
issues, the publisher takes a financial loss, the character gets a tarnished
reputation and the publisher doesn’t expand its audience. That’s throwing good
money after bad, and a publisher doesn’t have that much in their budget. In a
marketplace where 90% of all books fail in the first year, a comic publisher
really needs a strong marketing campaign to make a first impression on readers.

It’s
clear that shock doesn’t lead to sales in the comic book business anymore.
Readers have heard it all before. And they just don’t care enough to spend
money on the same old gimmicks.

Base
blown up? Predictable. Death of a character? Been there and done that. Big
menace everyone has to come together to fight? Did that last year. Major crisis
that affects all the titles in a publisher’s catalog? Meh. New person taking
over for the original? We know the original will be back sooner rather than
later. New minority replacing the original? Ditto. It’s hard to sell a comic to
a reader when they know what the story is gonna be about in a shock marketing
campaign.

The
biggest problem with publishers in the comic book business since the 1990’s is
that they’re still trying too hard to get the attention of the man and woman on
the street. Yes, comic fans are shocked by the controversial announcements of
stuff going on in their major events However, they aren’t giving casual customers
a reason to care about spending any money on comic books. With the speculator
boom over, the rest of the world now sees these stunts as desperate Hail Mary
ploys to get attention.

While
the marketing stunts get a lot of bickering and arguing going among comic fans on
message boards and social media, they don’t build the buzz that generates
interest among casual customers. A handful of comic fans will get excited about
that event in a 32-page comic and buy comics from a comic shop, but by the time
the masses of casual readers find that same story on Amazon or Barnes &
Noble in a trade a year later, the opportunity for making a serious inroads in
sales has been lost.

That’s the other big problem about
marketing comic books, comics today are made and marketed for comic fans, not
casual customers. Unfortunately, casual customers are the bread and butter of a
business. And without them, it’s hard for a publisher to expand their readership.

Getting
people to spend money is the hardest part about marketing. A good gimmick can
get people to take a look at something for a second. It can even get them
buzzing on message boards and social media. But if the product isn’t great then
the customer has no incentive to spend money. Comic publishers aren’t giving casual
customers that reason to invest their money and time in reading their
publications.

And
that’s the big question writers and artists in the overall comic book industry
have a hard time answering for the layperson: WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Hollywood
screenwriters can answer this question. Trade publishers can answer this
question. Even some POD authors can answer it. Unfortunately most comic
publishers can’t. And because they can’t answer this question when they market
a story, they can’t sell comics.

Events,
gimmicks, and stunts may get the public’s attention. But if the public doesn’t
care about the story they don’t spend money.

Publishing
is a long-haul business. And the short-term marketing of the 1990’s are killing
the comic book industry. In the 21st Century its clear the business
needs to apply some new approaches to marketing comics. Approaches that focus
on building audiences of readers with good stories, not gimmicks.

Unfortunately,
no one wants to take the time to build that audience. In this age publishers
want instant results on the first issue, not understanding the business of
publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes anywhere from three to five
years minimum to build an audience for a title and possibly eight to ten years
for a character to build a serious following with fans. The key to marketing
comic books successfully isn’t getting people’s attention with the first issue,
it’s keeping them interested in reading a character’s adventures three years
from now, five years from now or even a decade later.

Well, because making characters be a-holes or on the edge is still cool, a product of the dark age of comics. I am tired of the trend. If you want an antihero, Lobo or the Punisher can fill that role. If someone wants a twisted version of Batman, you can go with the vampire Batman from Gods and Monsters, an alternate universe created for an animated movie where characters are different and darker.

Jason stayed dead in The Dark Knight Returns, which is sad because it made Batman feel guilty with him being dead. He resigned from being Batman for 10 years because of how guilty Bruce felt over Jason's death.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Shawn James and I'm a man with a lot on my mind. This blog is a place where I'll write essays, promote my self-published, books and display my art.
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